Current Newsletter: The story behind the story: Southern Book Prize Nonfiction Finalists.

Bookstores with reviews in this week's newsletter:

• Beth Seufer Buss, Bookmarks in Winston-Salem, North Carolina
• Amanda Grell, Pearl’s Books, Fayetteville, Arkansas
• Rachel Watkins, Avid Bookshop, Athens, Georgia
• Jan Blodgett Main Street Books, Davidson, North Carolina
• Pete Mock, McIntyre’s Books Pittsboro, North Carolina
• LeeAnna Callon, Blue Cypress Books, New Orleans, Louisiana
• Chelsea Stringfield, Parnassus Books in Nashville, Tennessee
• Mikey LaFave, Avid Bookshop in Athens, Georgia
• Daniel Jordan, Pearl’s Books in Fayetteville, Arkansas
• RC Collman, Flyleaf Books in Chapel Hill, North Carolina
• Josh Niesse, Underground Books in Carrollton, Georgia
• Hezekiah Olorode, Old Town Books in Alexandria, Virginia
• Sydney Mason, Epilogue Books Chocolate Brews in Chapel Hill, North Carolina
• Nancy Pierce, Bookmiser in Marietta, Georgia
• Johanna Hynes, Carmichael’s Bookstore in Louisville, Kentucky
• Cindy Otis, The Stacks Bookstore in Savannah, Georgia
• Johanna Hynes, McIntyre’s Books in Pittsboro, North Carolina
• Arthur Acton, Fiction Addiction in Greenville, South Carolina
• Jamie Southern, Bookmarks in Winston-Salem, North Carolina

Book Buzz Feature: The Serviceberry by Robin Wall Kimmerer
I suppose that one important aspect of the economy of nature that has shaped my thinking is its circularity, in which materials flow in cycles and there is no such thing as waste. Everything gets regenerated so that life continues to flourish. Just about all the miraculous production by plants is redistributed in some way, passed among food webs, feeding other lives and eventually building the soil so it can all start again.

I continue to marvel every day at the reciprocity in something as basic as the two foundations of life on the planet–the inverse processes of photosynthesis and respiration. I mean, think of it…every breath we take is oxygen exhaled by plants, a so-called waste product. And no sooner does it enliven our bloodstream than we exhale carbon dioxide in return, which the plants take in in order to return the favor. It’s the ultimate biological poetry, my breath is your breath, and life is magnified by the exchange. Shouldn’t human economies emulate this?

― Robin Wall Kimmerer, Interview, Orion Magazine

Decide For Yourself Banned Book Feature:
Debating Darcy by Sayantani Dasgupta
I’m always a fan of a good Pride and Prejudice retelling, and this one does not disappoint. I love the setting of competing high school debate teams and the issues of racism and sexism that are addressed.
― Jamie Southern, Bookmarks in Winston-Salem, North Carolina

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